Sunday, February 8, 2009

Battlestar Galactica - Recap & Review - Blood on the Scales

Battlestar GalacticaBlood on the Scales

Original Air Date: Feb 6, 2009

Brittany – TwoCents ReviewerBrittany@thetwocentscorp.com

You know what’s better than one really great episode of this show? Two really great episodes back to back. After last week’s ‘to be continued’ and all the heart stopping action, this week’s episode was the perfect conclusion of the mutiny on Galactica story-arc. Here are the things you need to know about the most recent episode.

2 comments:

You know what’s better than one really great episode of this show? Two really great episodes back to back. After last week’s ‘to be continued’ and all the heart stopping action, this week’s episode was the perfect conclusion of the mutiny on Galactica story-arc. Here are the things you need to know about the most recent episode.

Number one: Chief Tyrol is a hero. He may not be your conventional hero like the Admiral, but he is a hero never the less. After the mutiny started, he crawled through the tunnels of Galactica, almost got his head blown off, made his way past the sewage system and into the belly of the ship. There, he located the FTL drive and manually disabled it. He cut his hands and could have had it a lot worse, but he succeeded in keeping Gaeta from jumping the ship away from the fleet. Cylon or not, that man saved everyone. His heroics also provided him and us the opportunity to see that Galactica is falling apart at the seams.

Number two: Tom Zarek had something drastically different in mind than Gaeta. While the coup started under Gaeta’s orders, the rules changed as soon as Zarek got a little taste of power. Remember all those times Laura complained about the Quorum? Now she never has to complain again, because Tom Zarek had them all murdered. Wish granted, Laura.

Number three: Never piss off the Admiral or the President. Or Lee and Kara. After busting everyone out of the brig, Anders gets shot so Kara stays behind to tend to his wound. Romo Lampkin just happens to come along, kill a soldier with a pen and after Kara asks, he helps her take Anders to sick bay. Meanwhile, Lee has sprung Adama from the airlock he was about to be shot in after being found guilty for numerous crimes, including giving aid and comfort to the enemy. Making his way with an army of supporters back to the CIC (where were those people before?) Bill takes back command of his ship.

Laura, who has made it safely to the basestar, believes Bill is dead after being told he was shot by the firing squad. With nothing to lose, she rages to Zarek and Gaeta that she will come after them with every cannon, gun, and bullet she has (down to her eye-teeth?) until she is back in command. It’s only when she finally sees Bill again that she allows tears to flow. Neither one of them knew if they’d make it through this alive. I bet you can guess who doesn’t make it out alive though! At the end of the episode, Zarek and Gaeta are both given the firing squad treatment.

I have just a few things to say about this episode. 1) Seriously, where were all those people who helped Adama at the end of the episode? Where they just waiting to see which way the coup would go? I hate fair weather fans. Way to have faith in your leaders, fleet. 2) Has Gaius finally grown up? In a scene with one of the Six models on the basestar, he woke up from a nightmare in which Adama was killed. He actually felt remorse for leaving his crazy cult behind on Galactica and vocalized the need to get back to his people. Our boy is growing up so fast! And last but not least 3) Adama and Laura, when enraged; make me want to airlock myself. I don’t think I could handle their combined rage directed at me.

What did you think BSG fans? I want to know what you have to say. Send me an email, or leave your Two Cents in the comments!

Here's what I like about Chief: after a potential blood feud with Adama, after losing his wife, after finding out that he is a frakkin' cylon, after discovering the son he is raising isn't even his, after a complete and transformative breakdown in earlier episodes, he STILL does the right thing. In a series where all that matters is if the label reads "human" or "cylon," his simply reads "Tyrol." That speaks volumes.